London indie rock trio Male Bonding have teamed up with Rivers Cuomo on a new track.
Although they hail from London, Male Bonding seem to have more in common with the Stateside music scene. Signed to Sub Pop, the band are clearly in thrall with Husker Du, fIREHOSE and more.
Releasing their debut album earlier this year, Male Bonding proved that they could hold their own with those influences. The trio have been touring far and wide, with the band travelling to the United States earlier this year.
It seems that the group have caught the attention of some high profile artists, with Weezer star Rivers Cuomo recently flying over to the UK to work on new material.
Speaking to Pitchfork, John Arthur Webb explained how the collaboration came about. “Maybe six months ago, we got an email from his assistant or somebody at Weezer.com: “Would you like to do a songwriting session with Rivers?” We first thought someone was winding us up, so we sent it to Sub Pop so they could check out the credibility. We actually thought someone was playing a prank on us. Sub Pop got back to us and said it’s kind of legit.”
Continuing, the frontman explained that Rivers Cuomo flew out to the UK to work on a series of tracks. “We booked a studio for like four hours, and he flew in from L.A. and came straight to the studio. We were there waiting for him. He was like, “OK, so you know what’s happening?” We were like, “No, we haven’t got a clue.” We just thought we’d maybe jam for a few hours, record the whole thing, and he could take it away with him.”
“But he was like, “No, we’re going to write songs and record it now.” He had a couple of ideas, which we didn’t hear in the end. We played him something that we had drafted up the night before, and he was like, “I like it. Let’s do that.” We just literally spent maybe an hour moving bits around and recorded it. We did a few takes, and then he took it back to L.A. with him. He said he’s been working on the vocals some more.”
However the resulting track may not see the light of day. Continuing, John Arthur Webb revealed that he was unsure of the exact nature of the session. “He said he’d share it with the other Weezer guys as well, and see if they want to use it or not. I think the idea was that we’d be writing a song for Weezer”.
“It was maybe a bit too quick or something, and they weren’t sure whether it worked out for them. We’ll see what happens to it.”
